This time it is a German ‘rescue’ ship bringing what they describe as many “unaccompanied minors” to Sicily.
Photo from this story in The Independent. “Unaccompanied minors?” Or, perhaps ‘Unaccompanied men’ would be a more appropriate description.
Here are a couple of commenters to the article at the Malta Independent:
Here is a bit of the same old story:
Some 600 migrants rescued at sea arrived Friday in Sicily — one of the biggest influxes since Italy struck a deal with Libyan authorities to limit migrant smuggling — raising concerns of a renewed surge on the Libyan human trafficking corridor.
President of the German “rescue organization.”
The migrants, including many unaccompanied minors from sub-Saharan Africa, were rescued in seven operations over 36 hours, and transported Friday to Palermo by the German non-governmental organization SOS Mediterranee.
[….]
SOS Mediterranee President Valeria Calandra told Sky TG24 that the renewed instability in Libya has only increased the desire of migrants to escape the lawless North African country.
“It was very improbable that from today to tomorrow you can stop everyone,” she said.
“I think this rescue is the first of many others that will arrive.” [she hopes it is!—ed]
This Syrian family and the brothers left behind were in Saudi Arabia (one of the brothers had already emigrated to S.A.). Saudi Arabia is a safe country! Therefore, why are these people now the responsibility of the US taxpayer? They weren’t living in some sqaulid camp.
They were in arguably the richest country in the Middle East!
So tell us again why Saudi Arabia couldn’t house millions of Muslim refugees in their tent cities reserved for the brief Hajj period? Instead we are taking Syrian ‘refugees’ from S.A.!
It is worth reading the whole article because there are lots of useful nuggets and some important comments by critics of the program (besides the story of a Syrian family that came to the US as ‘refugees’ from Saudi Arabia!)
By the way, I’m sure many of you are saying—yes! If we must have them, keep them in California!
Even though overall arrival numbers in fiscal 2017 dropped by more than half from the previous year, San Diego County continued its legacy as the California county that took in the most refugees.
In a year that began with a promise of more refugees than ever before coming to the U.S. and ended with an ongoing court battle over how many and whom the president could block from coming, about 1,500 refugees resettled in San Diego County, according to data from the State Department. That’s down from just over 3,100 the year before, and it’s the only time that number has dipped below 2,000 in the last decade.
“The fact that we remained the largest county, it definitely makes us proud to continue the tradition of San Diego being a safe haven,” said Etleva Bejko, director of refugee and immigration services for Jewish Family Service, a resettlement agency.
Where refugees resettle once the U.S. agrees to take them is a complicated decision-making process that factors in whether they already have family living here, which agencies have the bandwidth to support them and which places have infrastructure in place to help them succeed. That often means that places like San Diego that already have large populations of people from a country will continue to take refugees from that country. [Multiplier effect! Like Ft. Wayne in my previous post—ed]
San Diego County has been known for leading the state in refugee arrivals since large numbers of Iraqis fleeing war began arriving in late summer of 2007.
Confirmation again! Federal resettlement contractors paid by the head!
Bejko said her organization has had to reorganize support efforts because of the overall decreases in arrivals. Resettlement agencies receive funding based on the number of refugees that they help.
[….]
Three members of the Tarakji family, originally from Damascus, Syria, were some of the few who made it to the U.S. after the travel ban. The slowdown in accepting refugees has separated them from two other members of their family.
Catholic Charities resettled mother Alshifaa Hammoush, 52, father Manaf Tarakji, 58, and daughter Maria Tarakji, 21, in April. Two sons, Yasser Tarakji, 29, and Yaman Tarakji, 27, remain in Saudi Arabia.
They had already been trying to immigrate to the U.S.to reunite with their extended family who live in San Diego County when the war in Syria broke out. [They hit the jackpot because the refugee category is the most desirable way to get into the country. They get their hands held by a federal contractor who helps them get all of their welfare (not available to other categories of legal immigrant)!—ed]
After bombing destroyed the pharmacy where Hammoush worked and scared off Manf Tarakji’s clients for his electronics repair business, and a car exploded outside their building, the family fled in 2013 to Saudi Arabia, where the oldest son was already living and working.
Once in Saudi Arabia, they couldn’t continue the process to get family-sponsored green cards.
They stayed there in limbo, unable to fully establish new lives because they were on visitor visas that they had to renew every three months, until they were accepted as refugees to the U.S. Yaman Tarakji was separated into his own refugee case because of his age, and he is still waiting for processing.
The oldest brother, Yasser Tarakji also tried to apply but never heard back from the U.N. agency that registers refugees.
[….]
Still, separation from the two sons is painful for all of them. Whenever Maria Tarakji looks at photos from their last day together in Saudi Arabia, her eyes wet with tears.
“The U.S. was accepting refugees forever. It’s unfair to do this now,” Maria Tarakji said. “It’s really hard to live here, and our brother is not here.”
She said she’s had to take responsibility for tasks that her brothers used to handle, like choosing an internet router.
Both brothers work in computer programming and repair.
UN short-circuiting the flow from Libya to Europe by sending migrants to the good ol’ welcoming USA?
Hillary, along with her gal pals Susan Rice and Samantha Power, are the leading culpritsin the Obama Administration’s disastrous involvement in the overthrow of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and the creation of a failed state that has become a primary route for the migrant invasion of Europe.
Susan Rice, Samantha Power and Hillary. Photo is from a blog called The Political Girl that asks: Are women leading the way in Libya?
Now we learn that the UN, partially in hopes of saving the present Italian government (Italians are pretty angry about the Libya to Italy express), is planning to open up a refugee holding facility in Tripoli where migrants will be detained until they can be moved to transit centers.
But, guess what! Most in the transit centers will go to Canada, Norway, and drum roll—the United States.
Hillary gloats about knocking off Gaddafi turning Libya into a completely unstable hell hole, and America gets more refugees!
ROME (Reuters) – The U.N. refugee agency is seeking to open a refugee transit center in Tripoli early next year to resettle or evacuate as many as 5,000 of the most vulnerable refugees out of Libya each year, a senior U.N. official said on Friday.
It is a small fraction of the total number of Libya’s migrant population, estimated at as many as 1 million, but would be a welcome outlet for the 43,000 refugees that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates are now trapped in Libya.
“We hope to have the (written) authorization soon,” Roberto Mignone, the UNHCR’s representative in Libya, told Reuters in Rome. The U.N.-backed Tripoli government has already approved the project verbally, he said.
[….]
Italy has become the main migrant route to Europe since an agreement between the EU and Turkey shut down smuggling through Greece last year, but arrivals have fallen sharply since July, when an armed group clamped down on departures.
With the backing of the European Union, Italy has financed, trained and equipped by the Tripoli-based coast guard. With a national election due early next year, Italy is also promising tens of millions of euros to Prime Minister Fayez al-Seraj and municipal governments to put a stop to smuggling.
[.…]
Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti has said he is depending on the U.N. refugee and migration agencies to improve conditions for refugees and migrants now trapped in Libya.
“We can’t be the only solution,” Mignone said, also because Libya remains very dangerous and international staff still have very limited access to the country.
[….]
While the UNHCR hopes to resettle many of them, it is a lengthy process. Many countries do not have a permanent diplomatic presence in Tripoli, further complicating matters.
So the agency will seek to evacuate most of them, Mignone said, to emergency transit centers in Romania, Slovakia or even Costa Rica, where they will have more time to apply for resettlement.The agency is currently working to open another emergency transit center in Niger, he said.
Here is one articleI found telling us that ‘refugees’ in a transit center in Slovakia are destined for Canada, Norway and the US. And, I had previously written a post on the Costa Ricatransit center with our old friend HIAS being paid by the US State Department to work there. I better start paying more attention to these transit centers!
So, if the scheme goes through, illegal aliens in Libya will be moved to a transit center and ultimately Anytown, USA instead of pushing on to Europe.
And, yes, Mr. President, the deal was “dumb” and it makes you “look terrible.”
We have America’s hurricane refugees and you are bringing in ‘refugees’ that Australia does not want on its mainland!
What is Trump grinning about? He (we!) get nothing out of the deal that saves Turnbull’s political neck.
The news that they were leaving Australia’s detention centers en route to at least five American states is two days old, so surely they have been delivered.
For new readers, see all of my posts on the Australian (dumb!) deal by clicking here.
Here is the news posted Wednesday at The Guardian:
More than 50 refugees from Manus Island and Nauru are on their way to the United States to be resettled there.
The first 52 refugees to be accepted for resettlement in the United States under a contentious agreement with Australia have left the Pacific island camps where they had been held for years.
Their move comes as reports from Washington indicate the US is preparing to announce it is further slashing its overall refugee intake to its lowest level in a decade.
The first 25 refugees from the men-only camp on Papua New Guinea’s Manus Islandhad flown out of the capital, Port Moresby, on Tuesday for the United States via the Philippines and Qatar, Refugee Action Coalition spokesman Ian Rintoul said.
Another 27 refugees flew to Port Moresby on Wednesday from a camp in Nauru, he said, also bound, ultimately, for Los Angeles.
But, Los Angeles is not their final destination:
The refugees will be resettled across the United States, including in Georgia, Oregon, Colorado, Texas and Arizona.
They will be assisted with housing, physical and mental healthcare, English lessons, enrolment of children in schools, and in finding employment. [On the US taxpayer’s dime!—ed]
[….]
Obama’s administration had agreed to accept up to 1,250 of Australia’s refugees, mostly from Iran, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, [earlier reports said that Rohingya Muslims were in the group too—ed] in exchange for Australia agreeing to accept refugees from the “northern triangle” countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, under a US-led resettlement program. [These are mostly economic migrants NOT even in the US.—ed]
It was dumb when Obama did it, and it is dumb now!
Trump lashed his predecessor’s deal as “dumb”, and complained in a phone call to the Australian prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, that it would “make me look terrible”.
[….]
Trump ultimately agreed to honour the agreement, subject to “extreme vetting” of refugees.
The US is under no obligation to take a set number of refugees. Australian officials are confident the US will resettle somewhere approaching the 1,250 figure publicly speculated…
The takeaway from this dumb deal is that the US is helping Australia protect its borders, and maintain its security and sovereignty while sacrificing ours!
Australia’s asylum policy mandates that no refugee who arrives in Australia by boat can ever be resettled in the country, a policy the government says dissuades asylum seekers from attempting the dangerous and occasionally deadly ocean crossing from Indonesia.
You’ve seen the news I’m sure, but this headline at Reuters caught my attention:
Incensed over refugees, east Germans punish easterner Merkel
Hereis the story. Germany headed down the tubes IMHO (emphasis below is mine):
BERLIN (Reuters) – For weeks, Chancellor Angela Merkel endured taunts and whistles whenever she ventured out on the campaign trail in her home region of eastern Germany.
What did she win? In four more years will Germany even be recognizable?
And on Sunday, it was voters in the east, incensed by her decision to allow hundreds of thousands of refugees into the country, that helped send her conservatives to their worst result since 1949 and vaulted a far-right party into the German parliament.
They want Germany for Germans! What a novel idea!
Preliminary results showed the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD)winning 22.9 percent of the vote in the former communist east, well above their national result of roughly 13 percent. The AfD performed especially well with east German men, 26 percent of whom backed the party.
[….]
Merkel did secure a fourth term on Sunday, but she limped to the finish line and must now cobble together an unwieldy coalition with two other parties — the business friendly Free Democrats (FDP) and environmentalist Greens — that have diametrically opposed views on many of the big issues.
The result suggested that pollsters may have underestimated the lingering impact of the refugee crisis in the election and the outsized influence it would have in the east, where voters continue to behave very differently than their brethren in the west 28 years after the fall of the Wall. [Those eastern Europeans haven’t been sufficiently brain-washed with political correctness, or do they understand what occupation feels like!—ed]
